New environmental standards and increasing fuel costs have required that machines and vehicles function more efficiently. While enhancements to the individual systems of the machine may offer increases in the overall efficiency of machine operation, such enhancements may be insufficient to meet current needs. A machine cooling package, for example, operates less efficiently when warmer air flow is provided to the system as opposed to cooler air being provided. Warm or hot air flow often results when hot air from an engine is allowed to escape from the machine's engine compartment and enter the engine cooling package. Inasmuch as the air from the engine compartment is generally warmer than ambient air, unless the warm air from the engine is channeled away or separated from the air intake for the cooling package, the cooling package will operate less efficiently than would be the case with a cooler flow of air.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,525 to David J. Templeton et al. (the '525 patent) attempts to eliminate the recirculation of hot air from a machine engine compartment to a machine cooling package. The '525 patent discloses modifications to a machine hood to minimize the air gap between the machine radiator and the hood to deter the recirculation of hot air from the engine compartment back through the radiator. The arrangement of the '525 patent disclosure provides only limited improvements to cooling package efficiency, however, and further enhancements are desirable.
Any modifications to either the internal systems of a machine or the exterior of a machine ideally should not interfere with general operation of the machine, however. For example, operators of vehicles and machines must have adequate sightline to allow them to safely and efficiently operate the same. Operators of vehicles, in particular, must be able to view as much of the terrain around them as possible, not only to permit them to efficiently operate the machine, but also to ensure safe operation. In this regard, blind spots and obstructions to the operator's vision should be reduced as much as possible.
It is therefore desirable to provide machines or vehicles that operate efficiently, and, more particularly, that include efficiently operating cooling packages. The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.